Three Israelis shooting a documentary in a separatist region
in southeast Nigeria were arrested last week, the Foreign Ministry has
confirmed.
According to Times Of Israel, Nigerian authorities arrested
and interrogated the trio on suspicion that they had come into contact with
‘Biafran separatists.’
According to the Foreign Ministry, the Israeli Embassy in
Abuja is following the case closely and is in contact with Nigerian
authorities.
One of the Israelis arrested is Rudy Rochman, a Zionist activist with almost 95,000 followers on Instagram. Making the flight with him were filmmaker Noam Leibman and French-Israeli journalist E. David Benaym.
The Israelis were in Nigeria to film “We Were Never Lost,” a
documentary exploring Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya,
Madagascar, Uganda, and Nigeria.
They took off from Ben Gurion Airport on July 5 and landed
in Nigeria the next day.
According to residents, the crew was detained at a synagogue
during Friday night services in the Igbo village of Ogidi by Nigeria’s secret
police, the Department of State Services (DSS) and taken to Abuja.
Ogidi is the headquarters of Idemili North Local Government
Area, Anambra State.
The filmmakers were aware of the political sensitivity
surrounding the filming of the Igbo community. Last Thursday, the "We Were
Never Lost" Facebook page stressed: “We do not take any position on
political movements as we are not here as politicians nor as a part of any
governmental delegations.”
Last week, the group met with Igbo leader, Eze Chukwuemeka
Eri, and presented him with a framed Shiviti made in Jerusalem.
Rochman also presented another Igbo community with a Torah
scroll whose cover was designed by British-Israeli street artist Solomon Souza.
The Igbo consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel.
In January, a conflict broke out in southeastern Nigeria
between Nigerian forces and the military wing of the Indigenous People of
Biafra (IPOB) movement. The fight is ongoing.
A previous unilateral declaration of independence by the
Igbo people in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war that left more than a
million dead.
In 2018, IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu gave a radio broadcast
saying he was in Israel and indicating he owed his survival to the Jewish
state.
Kanu, a former London estate agent, heads IPOB and the
outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra.
He maintains the Igbo people, who are in the majority in
southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and it is his mission to lead
them to the promised land of Biafra.
The Nigerian government, on June 21, announced Kanu’s arrest
and extradition to Nigeria to continue facing trial.
He was subsequently arraigned before Binta Nyako, a Judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Kanu is facing charges bordering on treasonable felony
instituted against him at the court in response to years of the campaign for
the independent Republic of Biafra through IPOB.
He was granted bail in April 2017 for health reasons but
skipped bail after disregarding some of the conditions given to him by the
court.
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